2a3a45a6a7a8a9a0a is something I need to pretty regularly in the starcraft custom game I play. My pinkie hurts from having to push a so many times. The left ring finger hurts because in order to reach perhaps 7 through 0 I need to curl my left ring finger in otherwise it gets in the way. I tried doing 2a34a5a6a etc with my left ringer straightened out and extended- however this gives a very different and uncomfortable feel of strain from having multiple fingers stretched out, particularly when I have to reach 0. So at the moment I'm still doing my same technique of having my left ring finger curled in (bended forward, tucked in towards my palm)
What I've tried
- Decrease amount playing SC, more breaks (duh) - Tried to map A to caps lock on broodwar, did not work - Tried to map A to caps lock using a windows program to forcibly do it. It worked. However, the problem is that my fingers are too short to have pinkie on caps lock and index finger on 0. I do need to use 0 regularly in the game I play. So this is not a long term solution.
When I do the 2a3a4a I tilt my left hand left and right like a seesaw to get pinkie to hit a and index finger to hit a number. If I don't retract / curl in my left ring finger, it bumps into keys. If I had longer fingers, I don't think this would be a problem since my hand could hover further above the keyboard and do the seesaw motion where the left ring finger wouldn't have to be curled in.
I wonder if anyone else has had this problem and what they did I'm 5'7, my fingers are somewhat shorter than average but not that much
Another idea I had was to map both s and a to attack in starcraft. And then I could just translate/hover my hand to the right. However, S is for stop which I occasionally use.
Currently, this is my bandaid solution: - use a windows program to forcibly map both caps lock and a to a so that my left pinkie has more room/ is less cramped - am trying to train myself to get use to using my thumb for 0 since my index finger cannot reach 0 if my pinkie is on caps lock
I guess a last resort solution would be to get a gaming mouse with a programmable button and then map A to a button on the mouse. Then no more see saw motion with left hand. I'm quite attached to my current plain vanilla no button logitech mouse though and how light/easy to move it is.
I always lift my wrist a bit to get the full 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a0a or to use any 098 keys. My hands are probably average size. I think by keeping your wrist planted (if thats what youre doing) and curling your fingers awkwardly sideways youre hurting yourself. Try actually moving your whole hand across the keyboard, and also maybe getting a smaller keyboard.
On January 14 2018 04:45 FyRe_DragOn wrote: I always lift my wrist a bit to get the full 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a0a or to use any 098 keys. My hands are probably average size. I think by keeping your wrist planted (if thats what youre doing) and curling your fingers awkwardly sideways youre hurting yourself. Try actually moving your whole hand across the keyboard, and also maybe getting a smaller keyboard.
What I mean by curl fingers is just bend my ring finger at the knuckle so finger tip does not bump into the keyboard. I don't mean curling fingers sideways - I'm not sure what curling fingers sideways means.
My wrist is not planted- it's hovering. My hand does move across the whole keyboard. Getting a smaller keyboard would make the problem worse because one of the problems is that my pinkie doesn't have much room and feels cramped and I can't spread my fingers.
I don't think we have the same mental picture. I'll rework the wording till my original post is clear.
I had another idea which was to use a windows program to map N to A. So then I can use my thumb for 2a3a4a5a6a
On January 14 2018 04:45 cncbmb wrote: I guess a last resort solution would be to get a gaming mouse with a programmable button and then map A to a button on the mouse. Then no more see saw motion with left hand. I'm quite attached to my current plain vanilla no button logitech mouse though and how light/easy to move it is.
Don't you feel this would give you an unfair advantage?
That's why membrane keyboards are better than mech keyboards for BW, their actuation force requires very little pressure. If you're a high end player you're gonna need to constantly use at least 7+ keys a game which puts a lot of strain on ur fingers, another alternative is buying topre or hybrid topre switches but even those aren't as light as membrane keyboards.
For now I have settled with using a windows program to map N to A. So I can use my thumb to do 2a34a5a6a
The reason I am not using sc's built in key remapper is because I actually do want A to still function as A still in case I mess up and revert to old habits
Anyone ever modified the surface of a keyboard w/ something scratchy or obvious to make it easy to distinguish? Only small issue now if that the game I play also requires buildings lots of marines so m is close to n.
On January 14 2018 04:45 cncbmb wrote: I guess a last resort solution would be to get a gaming mouse with a programmable button and then map A to a button on the mouse. Then no more see saw motion with left hand. I'm quite attached to my current plain vanilla no button logitech mouse though and how light/easy to move it is.
Don't you feel this would give you an unfair advantage?
There's not much you can do about this sorta thing, there's macro mice that allow you to rebind your hotkeys/fkeys to the buttons as well. There's also macro keyboards that allow you to re-bind your f keys to other keys, people are gonna do w/e is most convient to them and they're not necessarily breaking any rules (it just goes against traditional BW morals - "everything has to be as it originally was").
On January 14 2018 05:48 cncbmb wrote: Anyone ever modified the surface of a keyboard w/ something scratchy or obvious to make it easy to distinguish? Only small issue now if that the game I play also requires buildings lots of marines so m is close to n.
Isn't this what keycaps are for? Never used them so I can't say, perhaps someone can weigh in on that.
On January 14 2018 04:45 cncbmb wrote: I guess a last resort solution would be to get a gaming mouse with a programmable button and then map A to a button on the mouse. Then no more see saw motion with left hand. I'm quite attached to my current plain vanilla no button logitech mouse though and how light/easy to move it is.
Don't you feel this would give you an unfair advantage?
There's not much you can do about this sorta thing, there's macro mice that allow you to rebind your hotkeys/fkeys to the buttons as well. There's also macro keyboards that allow you to re-bind your f keys to other keys, people are gonna do w/e is most convient to them and they're not necessarily breaking any rules (it just goes against traditional BW morals - "everything has to be as it originally was").
Agreed in that there is nothing you can do about it. The reason I am asking is because I just don't see how you can have fun if you know you have an inherent advantage against your opponents, and since he plays UMS I imagine that fun is the key point here (since it's not competitive ladder or something).
I've also tried lifting my left arm/elbow relatively high in the air which lets me have my fingers more straight when doing 2a3a4a5a6a and eliminates the need for some of the finger bending. Seems to have helped.
How do your fingers/hands move when you do 2a34a5a or need to use your pinkie to hotkey stuff? Do you lift your army or rotate your keyboard at all?
I don't have any wrist problems- just my left ring finger and left pinkie and they hurt at the knuckles when I bend fingers.
Pinkie seems to be getting worse though because constantly having to rehotkey stuff and use shift for waypoints uses my pinkie alot.
As far as having an inherent advantage over someone, the UMS game I play has people who use key rebindings and mouse buttons. And allied mines for that matter.
My hands might be a bit above average (i know for a fact the ability to strech my hand into weird positions is because of years of guitar practice) but i do 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a with my ring finger + index, not the pinkie. Am i the only one?
A lot of it has to do with how you place your hand on your keyboard, your keyboard positioning (how far is your keyboard from the edge of your desk/how far is it to the left, is your keyboard tilted upwards or downwards?), your posture (chair/desk height), how big your hands are etc. Most of this varies from person to person, what someone else does might not be comfortable for you.
Personally i cycle through my hotkeys with 3 different fingers, this is what i do:
1 with ring finger A with ring 2 with middle finger A with ring 3 with index finger A with ring 4 with index finger A with ring 5 with index finger A with ring 6 with index finger A with ring 7 with index finger A with ring (starts to get hard here)
I always have my palm on my desk while cycling through my keys, that said when i reach 6 and 7 i slightly slide my palm on my desk to reach the keys without having to raise my hand. I find that having a big mousepad that you can rest your palm on helps a lot with your movements, theres less friction so it makes it much easier to move around.
My keyboard is positioned very similarly to FlaSh's, he rarely uses his pinky for anything:
If you wanna see how other pros position their keyboard/hand:
On January 16 2018 20:11 TT1 wrote: A lot of it has to do with how you place your hand on your keyboard, your keyboard positioning (how far is your keyboard from the edge of your desk/how far is it to the left, is your keyboard tilted upwards or downwards?), your posture (chair/desk height), how big your hands are etc. Most of this varies from person to person, what someone else does might not be comfortable for you.
Personally i cycle through my hotkeys with 3 different fingers, this is what i do:
1 with ring finger A with ring 2 with middle finger A with ring 3 with index finger A with ring 4 with index finger A with ring 5 with index finger A with ring 6 with index finger A with ring 7 with index finger A with ring (starts to get hard here)
I always have my palm on my desk while cycling through my keys, that said when i reach 6 and 7 i slightly slide my palm on my desk to reach the keys without having to raise my hand. I find that having a big mousepad that you can rest your palm on helps a lot with your movements, theres less friction so it makes it much easier to move around.
My keyboard is positioned very similarly to FlaSh's, he rarely uses his pinky for anything:
Thank you. I've tried this a bit and it feels better than what I do. I find to reach 8-0 with this method I have to use my thumb and rotate my keyboard. I'll give it a shot in some games. It never occurred to me to use anything but pinkie to hit A before.
It's interesting seeing the details of everyone's routine. I think mine is rather unusual. I don't recall purposefully learning to do it this way, I guess it's just how it developed years ago and it's stayed that way ever since
To do 1a2a3a4a5a I go 3+3, 2+3, 2+3, 2+5, 2+5, with thumb being 1, index finger being 2, etc. Any further 6a7a8a9a is 2+5 and then if for some reason I were also us 0a I'd just use my right (mouse) hand to hit 0 and then a with left hand.